I faced something similar in the past (Not related to OFBiz). Many systems require different paths of configuration depending on different deployment scenarios.
There are multiple types of configurations I can think of including: - platform dependent configurations (it depends on your server and the environment) - Sensitive information like passwords - platform independent (test vs deployment environments for example) I think the first two do not belong to the code base. And so the best option for such problems that I used in the past is templates (whatever technology you choose). Templates + Build system + environment variables substantially simplify deployment when compared with patches that are highly dependent on the current state of the code base. Now for the third kind (platform independent like multiple targets) maybe we can get some good ideas from ruby-on-rails [1]. Essentially we can tweak the build system and add a few environment files to allow for multiple target environments. [1] http://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Michael Brohl <michael.br...@ecomify.de> wrote: > Hi Gil, > > we have similar challenges and modified OFBiz to deal with it easily. We > offered to contribute this long time ago (2008) but it was decided against > [1]. It was suggested to use patches instead but I think it's too > complicated to manage several patch sets for different environments. > > We now use a staged configure mechanism which uses a base build file, auto > detected machine name and provided parameters to decide which configurations > should be pulled for the environment. It's currently Ant based and therefore > does not fit into the current build mechanism (on the todo list). > > I like your approach also and I think it should be evaluated and discussed. > > Best regards, > > Michael Brohl > ecomify GmbH > www.ecomify.de > > [1] > https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/b95e239250880d9a5b34268b3b711f0f8f7f0540a26bb41c5ced493a@1213087551@%3Cdev.ofbiz.apache.org%3E > > > > Am 05.07.17 um 17:36 schrieb gil portenseigne: > >> Hello all, >> >> Working with different hosting companies, we used to have issues when >> deploying OFBiz concerning technical configuration of the different >> environments. >> We are writing this mail to get feedback from the community and eventually >> propose to improve OFBiz on this matter. >> >> For a customer, we are working with 4 instances of a release 13.07 OFBiz, >> and are currently using a set of patches (with addonmanager...) to manage >> environment specific configurations. >> During each production deployment, the hosting company receive from our >> jenkins a precompiled archive containing OFBiz codebase, and then apply the >> set of patches to configure it to the environment needs, recompile and >> relaunch... >> >> This way of doing can cause issue when patch could not apply, after a >> codebase modification (pretty rare but it happens). >> >> We are not satisfied with this way of doing, we are currently thinking >> about using environment variables to configure technical environment >> properties (those are on the hosting company responsibility), and to keep >> functional specifics into the code base. >> If you have some experience or advice in this matter, you are welcome. >> >> For our case, we currently have enhanced OFBiz to be able to get >> environment variable from the operating system within property file and some >> other configuration files (with default value if not set). >> >> Examples : >> *In Property file : >> password=${env:ONE_CONF:ofbiz} -> environment variable ONE_CONF or ofbiz >> if unset >> other_config=${env:OTHER_CONF:${partyId}} -> environment variable >> OTHER_CONF or ${partyId} if unset >> *In entityengine.xml : >> >> jdbc-uri="${env:DB_POSTGRES_URI:jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1/ofbiz?autoReconnect=true}" >> jdbc-username="${env:DB_POSTGRES_USER:ofbiz}" >> jdbc-password="${env:DB_POSTGRES_PWD:ofbiz}"/> >> >> That allow us to keep functional parameters stored within git branches. >> Our jenkins now is able to build our 4 configured and compiled instances and >> deliver it to the hosting company, that just have to set/check environment >> variable (database access, activeMQ, log location, instance id, etc.) before >> starting OFBiz app. Now we cannot have configuration failure during >> deployment. >> >> We will be glad to contribute it, if it's the good way to go ! >> >> Best Regards ! >> >> Gil Portenseigne >> > >
